Band-gap engineering of Cu2ZnSn1-xGe xS4 single crystals and influence of the surface properties
Entity
UAM. Departamento de Física AplicadaPublisher
ElsevierDate
2014-10-15Citation
10.1016/j.actamat.2014.06.040
Acta Materialia 79 (2014): 181 - 187
ISSN
1359-6454 (print)DOI
10.1016/j.actamat.2014.06.040Funded by
RC acknowledges financial support from Spanish MINECO within the program Ramón y Cajal (RYC-2011-08521). This work was supported by the Marie Curie-IRSES project (PVICOKEST, GA: 269167), MINECO projects (KEST-PV, ENE2010-21541-C03-01/-02/-03) and Marie Curie-ITN project (KESTCELL, GA: 316488)Project
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/269167; info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/316488; Gobierno de España. RYC-2011-08521Editor's Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2014.06.040Subjects
Germanium; Kesterite; Solar cells; Spectroscopic ellipsometry; FísicaRights
© 2014 Elsevier LtdEsta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional.
Abstract
Thin film solar cells based on Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 are very promising, because they contain earth-abundant elements and show high absorptivity. However, the performance of these solar cells needs to be improved in order to reach efficiencies as high as that reported for Cu(In,Ga)Se 2-based devices. This study investigates the potential of band-gap engineering of Cu2ZnSn1-xGexS 4 single crystals grown by chemical vapour transport as a function of the [Ge]/([Sn] + [Ge]) atomic ratio. The fundamental band gap E0 is found to change from 1.59 to 1.94 eV when the Ge content is increased from x = 0.1 to x = 0.5, as determined from spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. This knowledge opens a route to enhancing the performance of kesterite-based photovoltaic devices by a Ge-graded absorber layer. Furthermore, the formation of GeO2 on the surface of the as-grown samples was detected by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, having an important impact on the effective optical response of the material. This should be also taken into account when designing photovoltaic solar cells
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Google Scholar:Caballero, Raquel
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Victorov, I.
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Serna, R.
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Cano-Torres, J. M.
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Maffiotte, C.
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Garcia-Llamas, E.
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Merino Álvarez, José Manuel
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Valakh, M.
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Bodnar, I.
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León, M.
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